The present invention relates to a drive assisting apparatus for assisting a safe drive of a vehicle.
Although basically drivers try to drive vehicles safely, vehicles may be rendered in a dangerous situation without any intention or awareness of drivers or due to insufficient safety confirmation. For example, whereas a safe state of a certain level can be maintained as long as drivers are checking a forward scene, drivers may look aside when they are distracted to something. A dangerous situation tends to occur when drivers are looking aside. To prevent vehicles from being rendered in such a dangerous situation, various techniques have been developed conventionally.
For example, Patent document 1 discloses an inattentive drive judging apparatus which is equipped with a line-of-sight direction detection unit for detecting a direction of the line of sight of the driver on the basis of video of the driver taken by a vehicular camera. The apparatus is also equipped with an inattentive drive judging unit for judging that the driver is looking aside if the direction of his or her line of sight is out of a prescribed range.
Patent document 2 discloses a face direction detection apparatus which detects a face angle of the driver on the basis of video of the driver taken by a vehicular camera. A face direction angular velocity immediately before a time point when the face direction angle of the driver goes out of a detection range is stored. When it is judged that movement of a face region of the driver has been stopped, an estimated value of the face direction angle is calculated on the basis of the stored face direction angular velocity and an elapsed time.
[Patent document 1] JP-A-2012-22504
[Patent document 2] JP-A-2016-57839